Welcome to my first build, this is how i play vlad, its a build to get some nice KO's with vlad early-mid game (even though he's pretty weak early) and how to devastate the enemy team in teamfights.

This guide is pretty long so if you're just curious to the item build, just take a look above and check out the item section for explanations why i take them or why i don't take lich bane for example.
I've got two mastery tree's, on with 9/0/21 with some utility for cooldown reduction and xp increase, i often use this one but the second one also works pretty well, it gives you more survivability and increases your AP by 4%, which is great.

If you play vladimir different, and you think your way is better tell me, this way I can improve the guide.

Pro's

Alot of burst damage
By far biggest AoE burst damage of the game
Sustained damage too, due to short CD on Q and E spell
Short cooldowns
Durable
One of the strongest solo laners
Extremely Strong in teamfights

I use 9x greater mark of insight, this is pretty much standard on a caster.
9x greater seal of vitalitygreater seal of vitality or greater seal of force, for some health or AP /level
9x greater glyph of focus these are vital for vladimir, the CDR is great early game, to keep leeching health from minions/harassing your enemy, late game it will also make you able to spam your Q and E even more for some nice damage output.
9x Greater quintessence of insight Greater quintessence of potency or greater quintessence of fortitude: Ability power, health and magic penetration all work well on Vladimir

9points in offense are vital for vladimir, the AP per level, CDR and spell penetration all work great for any caster.

this is where you have to choose: (9/0/21) for cooldown reductions, extra experience
and movement speed, you can also go for a more defensive build (9/21/0) which makes you more durable and increases your ability power.

I always start with amplifying tome and health pot to increase the amount of health you leech, it also makes your harassing way more efficient and makes last hitting easyer.
Some people start with boots of speed to focus on harassing and as you are faster then your enemy, you will always be able to leech once and keep your enemy out of xp range.

On your first recall you should upgrade your amplifying tome into a Mejai's soulstealer,unless you were doing bad early game and you feel like this isn't going to be a great game, you can also get a haunting guise which is a great early game item
and buy a pair of level 1 boots (assuming you started the round with an amplifying tome).

Next you will be wanting to upgrade your boots into sorcerer's shoes.

If you find yourself running low on health often, your next item should be a hextech revolver, if you can handle your enemies quite easely, buy a rylai's crystal scepter, this will make you more durable and makes chasing enemies alot easyer, also it's way harder to get ganked by junglers (which are most of the time melee champions) because you can now hold them on a distance with the slowdowns, should they be able to get close, use your pool to get out.

The next item is going to be a rabadon's deathcap which will increase your ability power significantly.

Finish your Will of the ancients because by now there will be some teamfights, this item is great if you happen to have 2 or more casters. It's also quite good to keep your team on full health while killing baron nashor.

you will notice you only have 30magic resist(36if you take the defensive mastery tree), so you're very vulnerable for mages, this is where i buy an abyssal scepter to make your AoE combo more effective and to survive a bit longer.

Other items

there are alot of items that are pretty efficient on vladimir,

Zhonya's hourglass is pretty good on vlad because you can wait for your short cooldowns to recharge. and with which you can get make enemies stop focussing you.

Lich Bane: alot of people think this is a great item for vlad because of its proc. but when i play vlad i find myself not auto attacking very much so that's why i usually not buy it. the speed boost hower helps nicely to get in range for a spell combo

Ionina boots of lucidity are also very good on vladimir, i often see myself having only 15% cooldown reduction in total, but that's because i focus on a burst of damage to kill my enemies, this is a good way to increase your sustained damage and make you able to cast your sanguine pool twice in a fight.

When you have troubles fighting a warwick or when being stunned alot i find a Quicksilver sash very usefull to get out of the ulti and to reduce the damage you recieve from the bloodrazor he will probably have.

Some vladimir's take Boots of swiftness to gain extra movement speed, its good to chase one enemy but i prefer sorcerer's shoes or ionian boots for teamfights.

I always focus on maxing Transfusion first its a great harassing tool, you can start harassing amazingly well once you reach lvl 7 (rank4 on tides of blood)

I always make sure to have tides of blood on level 2 or 3 as soon as possible, to make you able to last hit creeps with it, then i get sanguine pool to level 3, so i don't have to wait like 22seconds for it to recharge, then i go back to maxing tides of blood to increase your damage output and the last 2 points to sanguine pool.

I find Flash a must have skill for vlad, with this you can surprise enemies early game to get in range for a KO, sanguine pool+ Flash is a great way to escape well coordinated ganks.

As a second spell Ignite is my favorite, combined with flash you can surprise your enemy, and perform great KO's.

works pretty well but i prefer the + combination

I find these three spells working the best on Vladimir

level 1-5 you just have to make sure to stay alive, don't initiate before getting sanguine pool because when things get nasty you will need it.

I start harassing mostly once i get level 5 when playing against enemies like lux, try to stay behind the lines untill she uses her lucent singularity(the bomb) to farm creeps, then you go to offense, act as if you want to cast transfusion on her, by now she will probably throw her this is very easy to dodge as it is very predictable when she will cast it.

Keep on harassing the enemy untill they are at about 40% of their health, then start pushing, keep attacking the turret, when they will come forward to defend their turret surprise them by a ( +) + + + + to surprise your enemy with a KO

This way you should be able to dominate your enemies in laning phase.

First of all, with this build you will have 3.5-4k health, but this doesn't make you a tank, you have nearly no armor or magic resist so you're not immortal. Not even with sanguine pool.

This is the hard part of playing vlad; you have to make sure to stay in the middle of the fight without being targeted.
Try landing your ultimate on as much enemies as possible,and as i said,you will have to try to stay in the middle of the battle to increase the damage dealt with your tides of blood and sanguine pool.

After a teamfight, when you low on health and a melee player decides to chase you, just keep them on a distance with rylais scepter passive , you will regain quite some health by spamming transfusion on the chaser, getting their health down alot until they decide to stop chase you.

conclusion, vlad is a very durable player with a great damage output (burst AND sustained damage). this way you should have to be able to get nice scores in both ranked and normal.

Screenshots will be following, This is the first screenshot, which made me decide to write this guide, it made me start thinking that this build works pretty well and that maybe i should write a guide about it;p. i got a 16/0/5 score in only 21minutes.
Thank you very much for reading the entire guide, i guess it might have cost you more then 5 precious gaming minutes so you made my day, preferring me over gaming